Herman J H, Dennis M V
J Clin Invest. 1973 Mar;52(3):549-58. doi: 10.1172/JCI107215.
Serial studies have been performed on three patients with relapsing polychondritis in an attempt to define a potential immunopathologic role for degradation constituents of cartilage in the causation and/or perpetuation of the inflammation observed. Crude proteoglycan preparations derived by disruptive and differential centrifugation techniques from human costal cartilage, intact chondrocytes grown as monolayers, their homogenates and products of synthesis provided antigenic material for investigation. Circulating antibody to such antigens could not be detected by immunodiffusion, hemagglutination, immunofluorescence or complement mediated chondrocyte cytotoxicity as assessed by (51)Cr release. Similarly, radiolabeled incorporation studies attempting to detect de novo synthesis of such antibody by circulating peripheral blood lymphocytes as assessed by radioimmunodiffusion, immune absorption to neuraminidase treated and untreated chondrocytes and immune coprecipitation were negative. Delayed hypersensitivity to cartilage constituents was studied by peripheral lymphocyte transformation employing [(3)H]thymidine incorporation and the release of macrophage aggregation factor. Positive results were obtained which correlated with periods of overt disease activity. Similar results were observed in patients with classical rheumatoid arthritis manifesting destructive articular changes. This study suggests that cartilage antigenic components may facilitate perpetuation of cartilage inflammation by cellular immune mechanisms.
对三名复发性多软骨炎患者进行了系列研究，试图确定软骨降解成分在观察到的炎症的发生和/或持续存在中潜在的免疫病理作用。通过破坏和差速离心技术从人肋软骨中提取的粗蛋白聚糖制剂、单层生长的完整软骨细胞、其匀浆和合成产物提供了用于研究的抗原物质。通过免疫扩散、血凝、免疫荧光或通过（51）Cr释放评估的补体介导的软骨细胞细胞毒性，均未检测到针对此类抗原的循环抗体。同样，通过放射免疫扩散、对经神经氨酸酶处理和未处理的软骨细胞的免疫吸收以及免疫共沉淀评估的试图检测循环外周血淋巴细胞从头合成此类抗体的放射性标记掺入研究均为阴性。通过使用[（3）H]胸苷掺入和巨噬细胞聚集因子释放的外周淋巴细胞转化来研究对软骨成分的迟发型超敏反应。获得了与明显疾病活动期相关的阳性结果。在表现出破坏性关节改变的典型类风湿性关节炎患者中也观察到了类似结果。这项研究表明，软骨抗原成分可能通过细胞免疫机制促进软骨炎症的持续存在。
